1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for efficiently packing management messages in a broadband wireless communication system.
2. Description of Related Art
A wireless communication system facilitates two-way communication between a plurality of subscriber radio stations or subscriber units (fixed and portable) and a fixed network infrastructure. Exemplary communication systems include mobile cellular telephone systems, personal communication systems (PCS), and cordless telephones. The key objective of these wireless communication systems is to provide communication channels on demand between the plurality of subscriber units and their respective base stations in order to connect a subscriber unit user with the fixed network infrastructure (usually a wire-line system). In the wireless systems having multiple access schemes a time “frame” is used as the basic information transmission unit. Each frame is sub-divided into a plurality of time slots. Some time slots are used for control purposes and some for data transfer. Subscriber units typically communicate with the base station using a “duplexing” scheme thus allowing the exchange of information in the form of management messages and data in both directions of connection.
Transmissions from the base station to the subscriber unit are commonly referred to as “downlink” transmissions. Transmissions from the subscriber unit to the base station are commonly referred to as “uplink” transmissions. Both transmissions include, along with the data, management messages for use by the base station and subscriber to maintain the communication link. Depending upon the design criteria of a given system, the prior art wireless communication systems have typically used either time division duplexing (TDD) or frequency division duplexing (FDD) methods to facilitate the exchange of information between the base station and the subscriber units.
Recently, wideband or “broadband” wireless communications networks have been proposed for providing delivery of enhanced broadband services such as voice, data and video services. The broadband wireless communication system facilitates two-way communication between a plurality of base stations and a plurality of fixed subscriber stations or Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). One exemplary broadband wireless communication system is shown in the block diagram of FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, the exemplary broadband wireless communication system 100 includes a plurality of cells 102. Each cell 102 contains an associated cell site 104 that primarily includes a base station 106 and an active antenna array 108. Each cell 102 provides wireless connectivity between the cell's base station 106 and a plurality of customer premises equipment (CPE) 110 positioned at fixed customer sites 112 throughout the coverage area of the cell 102. Each cell may service several hundred or more residential and business CPEs 110. The users of the system 100 may include both residential and business customers. Consequently, the users of the system may have different and varying usage needs. Furthermore, these needs can be dynamic and thus require the wireless communication system 100 to continually adjust to maintain optimal system performance.